Stormy weather

Whether you like it or not. Actually, as far as rainy seasons go this one has been quite mild, certainly less rain than I’ve experienced since the move. One difference this year has been a lack of tropical storms/typhoons passing through. In fact, I do believe today is the first time we’ve felt the full impact of being in the direct path of a storm. The difference is not so much the rainfall, we’ve had our rainy days, but rather the winds that accompany a tropical depression.

As seen while walking my dogs on the next street over from my house. And yes, it took out some power lines.

Speaking of electrical power, mine has gone out three times today so far. The first time was at 0300 when I was trying to get back to sleep after a pee call. I remember thinking “oh, shit. With this wind and rain, I’ll be lucky to see power again before noon.” I was actively contemplating which hotel would be a good place to escape to should the outage last longer than that. And then like magic, power was restored after only a 40-minute outage. It went out again around 5 a.m. while I was surfing the ‘net but this time it was only dark for about ten minutes. Just before I went out for the dog walk we lost electricity yet again. When I saw the downed tree above I figured I was screwed this time. I was pleasantly surprised to see the fan blades twirling when I got back home though.

I guess it says a lot about the reliability of utilities here when you talk in terms of only three outages. But I am duly impressed they’ve avoided the all-day blackouts I’ve experienced in the past. Coincidentally or not, the power company workers were here in Alta Vista yesterday trimming trees that might entangle the powerlines during a storm like the one we are currently experiencing.

This is what they did to the tree next to my driveway. I understand the necessity, but it’s a shame really to destroy such a beautiful tree. With all that weight now on one side, I don’t expect the roots will be able to withstand the combined effects of wind and gravity for long.

Here’s the stormy morning view from my upstairs balcony:

I kept thinking something is missing. Then I realized that the power guys had cut down one of my favorite pine trees. Hell, it wasn’t even that close to the wires.
The view from a few days ago. I’m talking about that tall skinny tree to the left.
Gone but not forgotten.

Life goes on. And with life comes hunger. This morning I assuaged those pangs with these:

Blueberry muffins. Yum!

Yesterday was grocery shopping day and I was disappointed, but not surprised, that Royal STILL doesn’t have any frozen fruits.

Luckily I was able to score a kilogram of fresh berries from Baguio via Iline. I sense some strawberry smoothies in my future!

Since I’ve decided to call Tuesday my day off from walking, I’m going to incorporate darts into my afternoon routine. That meant playing in the Alley Cats tourney yesterday.

My partner Beth and I were both inconsistent, but overall I threw better than I have been. I’ll call that progress and keep working at it. Still, we managed to scratch and claw our way from the loser’s bracket and take the tourney championship.

Speaking of darts, I’ve started putting together a Facebook group for the singles league I hope to start here soon.

The cover photo I’m using until I can find or take a better one. Oh, and I’m calling it the Barretto Singles League. Easily abbreviated to the B.S. League. I like it!

Since the rain appears to have voided my afternoon walk, I might just play in today’s tournament as well. Getting there should be interesting. An umbrella is pretty much useless when the wind is blowing the rain sideways. We’ll see.

And finally, some sad news. Brownie, the neighborhood dog I mentioned in a recent post, is no more. I’d been bringing him some scraps but then didn’t see him again for a few days. So I asked one of the maintenance guys if he’d seen Brownie around and he said he was dead and buried.

Rest in Peace, Brownie. At least your suffering is over now. You were a good boy!


You were the sunshine, baby, whenever you smiled
But I call you Stormy today
All of a sudden that ole rain’s fallin’ down
And my world is cloudy and gray
You’ve gone away
Oh Stormy, oh Stormy
Bring back that sunny day

UPDATE: Power is out AGAIN. Been well over an hour now. That meant I had to take a cold shower. Damn, I hate that. The rain is really coming on strong now too. Not sure I’ll venture out for darts after all.

5 thoughts on “Stormy weather

  1. Blackouts from power outages, and a brown-out with the death of Brownie. Alas. I hope things stabilize soon. Guess it’s too expensive and time-consuming to run the power lines underground, eh? That’s probably why we have so many exposed wires here in the ROK. Continued good luck as you cultivate your BS dart league.

  2. What about a generator? Assuming that pretty much every thing there is electric and no natural gas lines?

    Though, a portable generator could do the job and run some key appliances during power outages.

    Too bad about Brownie. With animals, people, etc., sometimes it is “there but for the grace of God, go I”

  3. Kev, everything I’ve seen done here is always done half-assed. They’ve been working on a drainage ditch on the National highway through town for over a year now. There are still lots of gaps because the power company can’t be fucked with moving the power poles.

    Brian, I had seriously considered a generator and lots of people have them (I can hear them in the neighborhood) but honestly the power outages have been infrequent and short enough that I’ve not bothered with it. No natural gas lines, there is a tank for my stove.

  4. Brownie IS in a better place. McCrarey, you and me, we’ll be in a better place some day too. No one escapes the Grim Reaper. Hopefully that time is later than sooner. Peace Out!

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